NHL 07 Interview

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Producer gives IGN the scoop on the current gen version of the game.

By IGN Staff

Don't let all this next-gen talk fool you. The team over at EA Montreal is still cranking out new ideas with the Xbox, PS2 and PC versions of the NHL franchise. NHL 07 breaks new ground with the Skill Stick Revolution -- a nifty analog-passing system -- and the addition of six roles on the ice, like playmaker, sniper and scorer. We sat down with Eric Chartrand, the lead designer of NHL 07, to talk about these new gameplay features and the evolution of the NHL in videogames and on the ice.

IGN: First off, with everyone talking about next-gen these days, what are the challenges that go into creating a good current-generation hockey game?

Eric Chartrand: A hockey game, no matter what platform you do it on, is still a hockey game. So, there are still lots of ways to improve on current gen. I think we achieved something very interesting with what we call the Skill Stick Revolution. Very easily, you can pass in any direction to your teammates behind you or to either side without changing your own direction. Now it's a very quick and simple way to pass. The impact we found that the game becomes more of a team game and you use the strengths of your entire team. Before, you would skate all the way up the ice and make one or two passes and shoot. Then the opposing team would do the same thing back to you. It was more like a basketball game.

IGN: That's a good point. Hockey is such a team game, but in videogames, you are often able to skate through the entire defense. How pleased were you to capture this kind of team-based gameplay that we haven't seen too much in hockey videogames?

Chartrand: We're quite glad because that's the way the NHL has evolved. The team that really showed us that this year was the Buffalo Sabres, a real underdog team that no one expected to do well with no real big names. They started playing position play, doing lots of quick, short passes with someone always on the puck, always with this quick, youthful energy. When we play our game it was like "Gee, this looks like the Buffalo Sabres." You tend to do a lot of passes, passes to the right position. Like there's no reason to skate down the ice with your defensemen, so you pass the puck to your forwards to move up. Where's team play is very crucial is with the power play and penalty kill when the puck is circulated very quickly, behind the net, to the point, back behind the net. Our passing system makes it very easy to circulate. What people start doing is using the defensemen at the point on the power play to shoot. I never remember in past games using my defensemen to try and score, and now that's what people do. I think we achieved something there.

IGN: When I watch hockey now, the style has really changed with all the new, young talent in the game. There's a faster style of game compared to ten years ago, especially with the new dimensions and rule changes. How do you think that plays into hockey games?

Chartrand: It made for very quick play because the puck moves very fast. The game is very positional. The offensive zone has been expanded by a few meters and the blue line has been moved toward the center. That makes for very different gameplay. A player will get to the blue line and dump the puck and a fast skater will try and race behind the defenders. One of my favorite young players is Patrice Bergeron with the Bruins, and he plays this way. He's going to find the energy to push the puck into the zone, the same thing Ovechkin is doing. Those new guys show that to win a game you need to have the puck moving around. Again, that's what the Buffalo Sabres did. When the Hurricanes started playing like the Sabres, that's when they started to win. They had to adapt their way of playing brought on by the new young blood in the league.

IGN: But there are a lot of star players in the league, some good young players that are head and shoulders above the rest. How do you showcase the stars in NHL 07?

Chartrand: We use an icon system with six roles on the ice. There's the power forward, the scorer, the sniper, the offensive defensemen, the defensive defenseman and the playmaker. There's a lightning bolt for the playmaker, a shield for the defensemen, crosshairs for the snipers. This really helps people that know hockey but don't know how to play the videogame, and it helps people that know how to play the game but don't play hockey. Star player will have those icons but they will be shaped like stars. So do a quick pass to a sniper with the star and he'll put it in the top corner.